She stopped again.

"You will go, then?"

"Why, yes."

She shook her head, reflectively.

"It is not right," she said.

"I am going chiefly," said I, "because I wish to recover my horse."

She always laughed when I mentioned that horse, and her laughter always made me angry.

"Do you doubt I have a horse?" I asked. "Or rather had a horse? Because Cullen Mayle stole it, stole it deliberately from under my nose--a very valuable horse which I prized even beyond its value--and he stole it."

The girl was in no way impressed by my wrath, and she said, pleasantly:

"I am glad you said that. I am glad to know that with it all, you are mean like other men."